in the week's top stories u.s. officials continue to deny a mass hunger strike at guantanamo bay where more than one hundred detainees have reportedly been starving themselves for forty days. new york city's police department after. a sixteen year old boy in a brooklyn neighborhood. the searing two years since the bloody conflict began some european states to put weapons directly into the hands of rebels. with islamist extremists. in china is complete with a new leaders aiming to keep the economy and military investments growing the u.s. continues to build its presence in the region.

back at the week's top stories and the latest developments this is the week on. a hunger strike at guantanamo bay is continuing after forty days with more than one hundred detainees reportedly starving themselves in protest at the desecration of the koran by prison guards lawyers for the captives claim the state of their health is close to life threatening but the u.s. military strongly denied the crisis saying only fourteen detainees are refusing all food. reports. u.s. president barack obama began his first term announcing his intention to close the guantanamo bay detention center now just two months into his second term the prison enters its twelfth year of operation with one hundred sixty six detainees still languishing behind bars and a reported one hundred thirty life threatening hunger strike and their hunger

strikes are the only way they have of even making themselves heard years and years without any hope of a release without any real charges this story has been denied by washington and essentially ignored by mainstream media outlets lawyers for the get more prisoners say the men began the hunger strike on february sixth to protest against the alleged confiscation of personal items such as photographs and mail and the sacrilegious handling of their qur'an during cell searches the center for constitutional rights says they've received reports of detainees coughing up blood i'm losing consciousness dropping more than twenty pounds and being hospitalized by day forty five medical experts say hunger strike participants can experience hearing loss and potential blindness and that's in addition to the psychological suffering they've endured for more than a decade that context where we have individuals incarcerated

isolated from each other and they don't know if they're going to get out tomorrow or never and that sets up a circumstance for extreme psychological stress it's really an abominable you know humanitarian situation where you're depriving these people of life liberty and for no really valid basis the director of public affairs for joint task force guantanamo captain robert duran released a statement to our teeth in it he denies all claims of a mass hunger strike or any mishandling of the koran duran says only fourteen detainees at the detention center are refusing all food. our understanding is that based on previous standards the determination of who is a hunger striker is a discretionary determination that one chinaman makes what those standards are what

their criteria are are questions that they need to be at at you know how are they defining hunger striker and when are they just terminating someone needs to be tube fed and if it is if the definition of hunger striker is entirely in their control and it is a matter of their discretion then i that explains how they are able to say that there are no more than a handful of men on hunger strike lawyers representing get more prisoners have sent a letter to us defense secretary chuck hagel urging him to help and the protest in the meantime organizations like the red cross have made attempts to check on the inmates welfare here's what a representative told r.t. the current tensions in guantanamo as far as we can see and as far as we understand are really the result of the uncertainty is made to detainees in guantanamo and uncertainty linked to defeat what's going to happen to them you know there is a lack of clear legal framework for detention many of them don't know most of them

don't know what's going to open and so has been our position and there needs to be a clear legal framework and a transparent process in terms of procedural safeguards for those detainees and it's to be transparent and fair to alleviate the strains of really that emotional mental strain that distance certainty triggers for the detainees of the one hundred sixty sixty teenie zakk one ton of obey eighty six have been cleared for release now this week the u.n. said that the u.s. is a violating international human rights law by indefinitely holding prisoners at guantanamo without charge the human rights council is urging washington to quote bring an end to these illegal practices by either process. prisoners in civilian court or releasing that morning from new york. are to. london going to the campaign coordinator money or is among the activists seeking to uncover what really goes on

the detention center she says the mainstream media and u.s. officials of always done the best to contain scandals. there's a lot of things that get official deny that half an hour day for example last year when a four hundred eighty one of the prisoners died in a strange circumstance and took time for the truth to actually come up here actually died we still don't know exactly what circumstances like in which he did die and then it was made impossible for there to be an independent autopsy because some of his organs when they returned to his family months later. had generated so much that it would be impossible to know what the actual cause of death was so there's a lot of secrecy surrounding what happens at guantanamo bay if there are requests for information they get covered up by national security issues and also there's just a lack of general interest in actually what is happening what i'm curious things that has come out over the last couple of weeks is that one of the deterioration of the prisons complained about. is that in january the bullets were fired at

prisoners during a protest that they had held this was corroborated by the pentagon and again it's just it's incredibly curious this has been admitted a couple of months down the line but there has hardly been any outcry in some of the more tellus of press that there's been some coverage in the mainstream media it's managed to get a couple of comment pieces but it's not actually being considered as a news worthy item the u.s. military denies that personal copies of the koran belonging to detainees were mishandled by gods but some activists such actions were perfectly explain why the captives decided to protest. this is creating a koran for that is the last global. it is out of extreme importance to them. they they see that. according to them they imprisoned because they are muslim and thus kind of proving their point unfortunately that's something that was quite common and bush.

obama would be more respectful to to the. muslim beliefs however unfortunately we see that's not the case and the very same practice are. to be seen today which is very unfortunate. of course for people incarcerated for over eleven years. been away from their families for eleven years while not being charge for eleven years it's understandable you know taking small for us what is a small item. is nothing but. a life. on a website at the moment we want to know your view on the issue every voice counts. you can tell us why you think the most still open after more than eleven years well perhaps you think that the the u.s. is to blame for not keeping its promise to close the facility or maybe cuba should never have least the base to america in the first place or maybe blame other countries for refusing to repatriate the detainees or indeed you may see the nine

eleven terror attacks as the main reason that is why the camp is still operational well you can head online and have your say right now here's how the voting is looking at the moment we can see there that the vast majority eighty percent are blaming washington for failing to keep its pledges and almost equally small numbers of you think others are responsible for what's going on at guantanamo bay so do cast your vote if you haven't already you could hear from me well coming up after the break police. protests over the killing of a brooklyn teenager by the. angry clashes and dozens of arrests that have all the stories after the break. with. technology innovation. developments around russia

we. covered. sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is. welcome to the big picture. is he going to. believe.

he continues here in the killing of a black teenager by the new york police is called public outrage and a vote week long process in brooklyn the activist childhood slogans accusing the n.y.p.d. of racism and cruelty clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement officials resulted in dozens of arrests. has a story. that. sixteen year old kimani gray was killed by police shot four times in the front and three in the back the n.y.p.d. claimed the teen had pointed a gun at them however this remains uncertain that there was a weapon that no one saw and not his friends his family didn't know he had a weapon and there were a lot of witnesses. who were able to see it that this individual. weapon as these candles burned in memory of yet another killed youth an entire community rises up night after night to demand justice and police brutality for three nights in

a row peaceful vigils turned chaotic clashes broke out. leaving one officer hospitalized after reportedly being injured with a brick a total of forty six arrests were made wednesday. but no violence erupted thursday night tensions however still ran high. i mean this is. not a country a lot of people are just tired of the period with solutions to stop the violence nowhere in sight deeply seated issues between the police and the community remain unaddressed leaving many worried children. and. new york bloodshed civil strife and devastation the state of syria two years after its conflict began the war between the government and rebels has seen seventy thousand people killed and millions fleeing their homes creating

a humanitarian disaster and while diplomatic efforts to bring peace of all failed but he say that foreign countries fanning the flames with plans to send more weapons or to the polls. this part of syria known as mesopotamia between the tigris and euphrates rivers is considered a cradle of civilization has been home to many asked nic and religious groups living in peace and harmony for ages people here believe this diversity is serious strong point but some warn it could also be used against the country and that's something to destroy. and the regime slogans in syria have been repeated to the longest of all the arab spring countries but assad didn't step down within weeks like the leaders of to measure and egypt nor did his regime fall within months like colonel gadhafi is in libya opposing sides have gone beyond demonstrations and clashes killings have become an everyday reality those

wanting a son to go both at home and abroad have decided to target what hurt the most serious diversity pitting people against each other after every massacre and every killing rivers of blood have been joined by streams of mutual accusations and hatred. the first blow was dealt to relations between the country's sunni majority and the ruling she had minority some more ignorant position and sometimes. it was never to make a city and it's not me once that one again. we should keep our unity we live in all of all of. it gabriel a point from commercially livin in series ne all green sunni dominated turkey and mostly shia iraq says here in about six tarion intolerance is something new for syria and very alarming your will feel this pressure for months now especially from

gulf countries trying to drag us to this perilous share soon again it's a big threat because a tear society from the inside. and some say it's been few from the outside it is part of the us strategy and some of the western strategy is to destroy syria by syrians and by arabs and this they are doing successfully another blow followed with an explosion at a palestinian refugee camps in syria and the cold blooded murder of palestinian conscripts these drove a wedge between the two arab peoples previously on friendly terms they wanted to both weaken the regime and spread despair among palestinians. with kurdish villages in syria's north east targeted the kurdish syrian peaceful co-existence has also been endangered but one o'clock its approval cations appear in very dangerous more syrian kurds want to be integrated into syrian society have rights and be respected

some turkish kurds maybe do as early ones killing his own people we've never been treated like that that of course when violence targets us it can't not affect relations. and fears are that those who wanted to see the fall of the regime. the countries fall instead. from syria. while sco is preparing a rapid response naval force to patrol the mediterranean at least six russian ships are expected to ply the waters on a permanent basis and without a god national interests and transport people if the syrian conflict gets further out of control you know of his going off as well. according to the head of the navy moscow wants to have five to six ships permanently beast in the mediterranean that will be controlled through the command of the black sea fleet based in the crimea there is speculation that this group will be put together out of ships taken from

the northern and the scene works in fleet the idea to base the navy in the mediterranean was initially voiced by defense minister city last week and of course this comes as the whole region is in the global spotlight due to the gulf within syria with russian authorities are not winking basing the need either in the region to what's happening in the country earlier they said that the only way the in the good in gauges of the help assist possible future of accusations of russian citizens from the country but actually the idea of moscow basing the navy in the mediterranean isn't something completely new during the soviet times a huge group of up to thirty vessels was currently based there from the late sixty's to the early ninety's. the overwhelming majority of fulton and this voted yes to being british in a referendum on monday argentina which claims the u.k. has stolen the islands labelled the poll of fast but london was quick to capitalize

prime minister david cameron urged desire is to respect the landslide result international consultant and author agency says the u.k. strives to hold on to the full plans is all about benefits. britain is trying to legitimize its presence there because one of the key factors is oil there is that there are huge oil reserves on the ocean but they're actually part of the continental shelf which even geologically and geographically belongs to argentina so they need to have all the legal trimmings in place as much as possible regarding the actual result of that referendum it's like asking the alter right wing israeli settlers on the west bank whether they want to continue being israeli or they want to become palestinian maybe they should open up immigration and if you have twenty or thirty thousand argentinian settle there then we can have another referendum and see what happens argentina has no military prowess or credibility whatsoever so britain in a way are laughing their way as they. seek out against and exploit this oil so

sixty six or sixty some odd billion barrels are just a rough estimate but the whole continental shelf which is very shallow around the. seems to have really huge oil reserves and on top of that it is in an area which is not a hot spot for the united states and britain as the middle east is on the news continuously refuse to negotiate over the dispute with one as ours despite calls from the united nations and that's something the u.k. government has failed to respect in other overseas territories elsewhere and sarah first explains. this is the story of an island a proud and spirited people displaced i think government he put it devastatingly high price paradise so kingly that many it will be the first time this as the bee in her. memory of the island memory of the happiness that we were leaving to each other and away when been treating here. we discover meant.

diego is a british colony in the indian nation and the largest of the che go silent as a population of a thousand people about the same as the folk and. good memories. there you go it's a home a real paradise today they da gusty is one of america's biggest military advices because it's our land. it's not for them. you know when you see them you got this anger because they are enjoying the island. we are suffering back in the one nine hundred sixty s. and it is shrouded in secrecy bush cynically to learn the islands to the us but there was a problem the island had for generations inhabited by the chikezie and people they'd built schools hospitals

a whole life and what did the british government they simply pretended none of this existed by fixing the entire population from their homes secrets lies deception dishonesty always rooted in facts in one thousand nine hundred eighty s. britain went to war protecting the folks and islanders from argentina in training first sums of money and costing precious lives the exact same time it was also using expensive resources preventing the people of the chakan silence from attending the falkland living in the homeland and they have a choice to stay where they said they wanted to stay under. the rule of the british or if they wanted to go to folk. and time rules they have a say and we don't have the city. give me the impression that there's not just this event the british government is the one like you every now and then used you hear

in the news talking about human rights justice social justice and so on that day i don't want that money probably the justice the chico seeing community have been fighting for their right to return to the island ever since they winning some of their cool cases pushed. government have continually appealed blocking their progress every step of the way how differently the people have been treated there's been a government balloting on knocking on doors on their behalf or asking what they want the h. word comes to my mind age four for how long. how long we're going to live this life we don't want to be here we don't want this life. we want to go back home. where we belong. perhaps the most shocking thing about this story if this is simply something that

happened decades ago this past injustices have been compounded by successive british governments right up to the coalition and today he continued to fight against returning to their island and say their stories from a largely. continue to bravely fight to return to their home. a cameraman working for artie's arabic sister channel in egypt has been attacked while filming activist drawing graffiti on walls a door to door call me to see footage of the incident which happened next to the headquarters of the muslim brotherhood party in the capital cairo also learn of the moment. drastic measure a leading animal welfare group says it will use drones to stop illegal hunting in

britain and a more about the up coming war in the countryside. dot com. government has suspended debate on a deposit levy that has sparked mass demand for all deposit to hand over up to ten percent of the savings was in force by eurozone finance ministers as a condition for a much needed ten billion euro bailout dr helen she's from the leading british think tank the bruges group told me earlier that she believes despite the delay the savers will still have to cough up. they will have to try and make it go ahead because the really do desperately need the bailout money unless of course they do the alternative which is actually drop out of the euro and probably default at some point which will not necessarily be the worst thing that can happen but that doesn't seem to appeal to any of the governments in question i mean we've had this problem with greece and we've had this problem with other countries that is how it's all been going on about the about the bailouts the way things have gone with

c. greece is that you know these these bailouts happen. try to do susteren never works and then after a while there is another request for another bailout. whether it will actually work or whether cyprus will be wrapped into riots is something we shall see in the next few days china's new president has called for what he described as efforts to continue the realisation of the chinese dream he was giving his first comments after the nation went through a once in a decade shift of power this week. and we report the change brings both challenges and hope. there used to be a superstitious belief almost in china about eight percent growth rate of the national t.v. number has to slow down to about seven point five percent it has to be a slow down number because chinese do this transition. we want to teach growth in

quality many argue it is extremely important to do reform reform really has been the key word for the new generation of leaders coming into power recently mr leask which outweighs the now the chinese premier he's been talking about reform is the largest given that china can enjoy for its further progress by its president mr xi jinping after being elected it was called the immediately two of president obama and he advocated it to two countries could have mutual respect and openness to one another things can be better and he's been talking about a new kinds of relations between new powers and that of course the definition is not being given by the chinese side however it seems that the u.s. has already got its own definition for example cuba to asia or rebalancing and as a result there has been increasing number of turturro disputes or disputes in other stores between china and some of the asian neighbors with the coming in the united

states might be a backup for them in the region but the chinese seems always want to have a peaceful neighborhood that's seems to be a really believe the chinese have been holding over the history. economic development will be the top priority for the new chinese leaders and recent for cost look promising a report from pricewaterhouse coopers predicts that china which is now the world's second largest economy will catch up with the u.s. by twenty seventeen before overtaking is one of the top spending priorities announced by the new leadership is defense now that comes amid america's growing military expansion in china's backyard u.s. efforts to gain a stronger foothold in asia are in the struggle for regional influence has been. raising concerns in beijing just days ago the pentagon announced a decision to put fourteen more missile interceptors along america's west coast and deploy a radar tracking station in japan it's in response to a north korean nuclear threat well china experts of modern zakk believe that

washington will have to take more notice of china when making these decisions in the future relations with the united states have steadily be getting more complicated and i think the reason for that is because before you know china was very much still a developing country a much weaker global power down the united states but china of course has been growing like crazy is more and more presence around the world in different continents in different countries i don't think the chinese are going to be militarily aggressive i mean as not be first the chinese history and secondly actually their tradition of this regime especially since nine hundred seventy eight i mean you know if. the chinese military i mean we talk about the rise of expenditure but actually compared with the united states china is very very weak militarily what has been their great remains it which is their economic development

and now to some other news making headlines around the world today two car bomb attacks have hit the southern iraqi city of basra ten people have been reported killed and many more injured in the explosions all rich by answer is rarely a target of violence and is considered a safer part of the volatile state iraq is fast approaching the tenth anniversary of the u.s. led invasion. a french soldier has been killed in combat in northern mali five french service men have now lost their lives in the paris led military campaign against islamist insurgents in the west african state is now into its third month french president francois hollande said the campaign was fast approaching an end when joint forces took control of key cities at the beginning of february. so that brings up to date from the news team with more free in half an hour from now in the meantime coming away after the break an insight into the syrian conflict r.t. .